Electronics used for applications such as deep oil well drilling, jet engine testing, and Venus exploration should generally be capable of operating effectively at high temperatures. For instance, in order to be effective, such electronics should be able to signal condition, amplify, and transmit sensor information at temperatures that may exceed 500° C. In order to achieve viable high temperature silicon carbide (SiC) electronics, the contacts, dielectrics, die attach, wire bond, and packaging should all be capable of operating at high temperatures. Recently, simple SiC circuits have been demonstrated that operate over a temperature range of −150° C. to over 500° C. and for over 10,000 hours at 500° C. in air ambient.
However, In order to make more complicated integrated circuits using SiC, high temperature interconnect metals and processes are generally required. These processes should work in concert with one another. Previous work has produced ohmic contacts that survived 600° C. in air ambient for over 1,000 hours. However, the 600° C. nitrogen anneal for 30 minutes that is necessary to form the ohmic contact leaves Pt2Si on the surface, which makes gold wire bonding to the metal stack difficult. A second metallization stack could be deposited to make an easy wire bond, but this adds extra masking and deposition steps. Accordingly, a simpler, faster, and more cost-effective process for making integrated circuits for high temperature operation may be beneficial.